1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with a dual piston device for the accurate portioning and casing of a flowable material such as meat. More particularly, it is concerned with such a dual piston device which, by provision of a pair of coacting, mated pistons, eliminates rejected, cased portions of whole muscle products such as hams which may result from clipping of a portion directly through a piece of whole muscle product.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Whole muscle products such as hams and beef briskets are often placed within protective casings for sale to the consuming public. Typically, casing of these products involves conveying whole muscle pieces of the meat of correct total weight into conventional casings, followed by a clipping operation wherein the ends of the casing are gathered and a circular metallic staple is applied. It sometime occurs (and particularly in automated casing operations) that the final weight for a given portion to be cased is reached with an integral whole muscle piece of meat lying in the open end of the casing in the region to be clipped. As a consequence clipping through a piece of whole muscle meat leaves a "tail" of meat extending out of the casing. This is objectionable both from aesthetic and sanitary points of view, and generally means that the cased product portion must be rejected.
Prior automated portioning/casing devices have failed to adequately address the foregoing problem. That is, while such prior devices are generally adequate for handling and casing of comminuted meats such as hamburgers and sausages, they simply make no provision for proper handling of whole muscle products while avoiding the inherent difficulty of tailing. Prior portioning and casing devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,060,349; 4,188,767; 4,417,434; 4,582,103; 4,642,849; and 4,651,498.